I’ve avoided cauliflower for a while because it’s been really expensive. Apparently we went through a shortage at the exact same time that cauliflower rice, cauliflower pizza crust, and cauliflower “alfredo” sauces hit their peak popularity, and we fell in to an all-out cauliflower crisis. I remember hearing a story about it on the radio which cited heads of cauliflower selling for over $7 in some areas! What. Anyway, prices have come down a bit, I’ve discovered this pre-shredded or “riced” cauliflower at Trader Joes, and I’m having a lot of fun experimenting with it. This week I made this amazingly fresh and vibrant Thai-inspired Peanut Lime Cauliflower Salad and I can NOT stop eating it!
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Make Your Own Cauliflower Rice or Use Store Bought
So this riced cauliflower is totally a convenience product, but I’m okay with that because personally it’s worth the small increase in price to not have to prep the cauliflower myself. If that’s not the case for you or if you can get a head of cauliflower for much less than I paid for the bag of riced cauliflower, here is a great tutorial from The Kitchn on making cauliflower rice (food processor or box grater). It’s not hard, but I don’t mind pay just a bit extra to have it already done for me. :P Also, I cooked my cauliflower rice because I prefer the flavor of cooked cauliflower over raw, but if you are a raw cauliflower fan you can totally just make this salad with raw “riced” cauliflower.
Try Peanut Sauce in Your Peanut Lime Cauliflower Salad
I modeled this salad after my Nam Sod recipe, but decided to keep this one vegan since it was only one ingredient away from being vegan anyway. That one ingredient is fish sauce. I absolutely love the recipe as written below, but if you’re an omnivore and want to experiment, try adding a little fish sauce (maybe 1/2-1 tsp?) to the dressing.
Peanut Lime Cauliflower Salad
Servings 4 1.25 cups eachIngredients
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil (or a neutral oil) ($0.23)
- 3 cups riced cauliflower ($2.49)
- Pinch of salt ($0.02)
- 1 tsp freshly grated ginger ($0.10)
- 1 fresh lime (2 Tbsp juice) ($0.19)
- 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce ( $0.04)
- 1/2 Tbsp chili garlic sauce ($0.10)
- 1 red bell pepper ($0.99)
- 1/4 red onion ($0.25)
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts* ($0.38)
- 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves ($0.45)
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium, then add the oil and swirl to coat the surface. Add the riced cauliflower and a pinch of salt. Sauté the cauliflower over medium for about 5 minutes, or until it reaches your desired level of tenderness. Transfer the cauliflower to a bowl and allow it to cool as you prepare the rest of the ingredients (I placed mine in the refrigerator for faster cooling).
- Squeeze 2 Tbsp juice from the lime into a small bowl. Add the grated ginger, soy sauce, and chili garlic sauce. Stir to combine.
- Finely dice the red bell pepper and red onion. Pull the cilantro leaves from the stems and roughly chop them. Roughly chop the peanuts.
- Add the bell pepper, onion, cilantro, and peanuts to the bowl with the cooled cauliflower. Pour the dressing over top, then toss to combine the ingredients. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to eat.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Peanut Lime Cauliflower salad – Step by Step Photos
This recipe begins with “riced” cauliflower, which is just cauliflower that has been broken up into little pieces. This 1 lb. bag is just over three cups. I think some stores also sell this frozen, which would work just as well. You can use this cauliflower raw or cooked for this salad, whichever you prefer.
I prefer the flavor of cooked cauliflower to raw, so I used sautéed cauliflower in my salad. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 Tbsp of a neutral cooking oil (I used coconut because even though it has a strong flavor, the flavor goes well with the ingredients in this dish). Add the cauliflower and a pinch of salt, and sauté for about 5 minutes or until it has reached your desired level of tenderness. Transfer the cauliflower to a bowl to let it cool as you prepare the other ingredients. I suggest placing it in the refrigerator to cool faster.
The dressing for this salad is incredibly simple. Squeeze 2 Tbsp of fresh lime juice from a lime and combine it with about 1 tsp freshly grated ginger, 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce, and 1/2 Tbsp chili garlic sauce (you can use sriracha if you have that instead).
Finely dice 1 red bell pepper and 1/4 red onion. Pull about one cup of leaves from the stems of cilantro and give them a rough chop (about 1/2 bunch). Roughly chop 1/2 cup peanuts. Add the bell pepper, onion, cilantro, and peanuts to the cooled cauliflower.
Pour the prepared lime dressing over the salad…
And then stir to combine! That’s it! This salad is so incredibly fresh and vibrant. I absolutely LOVE it.
Shout out to Trader Joe’s for the awesome prices on red bell peppers and limes, too!
It’s even better with avocado, black beans and scallions added to it. I know this is supposed to be “Thai” but the flavors lend itself to include those additions as well and offer more nutrition.
I loved this recipe! I’ve had it for lunch several days and it’s held up well (my only recommendation is to add more peanuts just before eating leftovers for extra crunch). I had about a half cup of quinoa leftover so I added it to the mix along with a diced cucumber and half of an avocado (I’m trying to use up what I have and waste less). Delicious and surprisingly filling. I have eaten it as a main course or as a side with salmon. Both worked well. I’ll definitely be making this again.
Could this be frozen?
I wouldn’t suggest freezing this one.
Delicious! Using as my meal prep for lunch this week, I paired it with this tempeh recipe (with oil omitted)!
A keeper for sure!
Forgot the recipe link…https://minimalistbaker.com/marinated-peanut-tempeh-7-ingredients/
Lovely meal. I cooked onion and pepper because I don’t like them raw. Otherwise, very flavorful and a good substitute for fried rice.
So easy, so healthy, so delicious. This will be my go to salad for all our summer picnics.
This was so good! I made a few changes based on what ingredients we had and our household’s palate; it turned out great.
I used sweet onion that I sautéed instead of raw red onion since we don’t all love red onion, and I used almond slivers instead of peanuts since we already had a bag in the pantry.
My only complaint is that we ate it up in one sitting, because we liked it so much; next time I’ll have to triple the recipe so we’ll have leftovers. Yum!
Same “complaint”- no leftovers! Will need to make a bigger batch next time.
I loved this! I made it a meal with cubed Trader Joe’s baked sriracha tofu. Super yum!
Love this recipe! It was delicious.
I omitted the red onion & peanuts the first time, only because I didn’t have them in stock.
Added some quinoa to bump up the protein as well.
Will be trying it this week w/ the red onion and peanuts!
Thanks for the recipe!
I actually didn’t like this at all. After reading all the comments I thought it would taste amazing, but I didn’t like the way the peanuts paired with the other ingredients, and the raw red onion did not taste nice.
Absolutely delicious! Super easy, awesome flavor. Definitely a keeper!
This was great! Even my picky 10 year old ate it !
“Make this and I will destroy it everytime” said my husband.
Another hit Beth! thanks.
I really like the new look/functionality of your site. Especially how you can change the number of servings and it tells me exactly how much of each ingredients to use. (I hate math! :) )
Delicious looking pics!! I’m trying to eat low carb & plan to shop for the ingredients for this!
So I made this and it was the bomb.com. However, while it doesn’t wilt the dressing does get absorbed by the veggies so I would advise to keep it separate if you plan on eating over the course of the work week! Can’t make the 5 star rating work on my phone app right now, but it’s 5 stars for sure!
This was fantastic! It is going to be my saving grace for travel baseball games all summer. Mixed it with grilled chicken for leftovers and it was better the next day.
I made this last week and served your easy orange chicken on top of it…and immediately texted pics and the links to both recipes to my sisters and boyfriend. It was my first time making either dish and they were great as leftovers for lunch at work the next day – I just microwaved it all together. It reminds me of one of my favorite fast-food/takeout dishes, only I don’t feel so terrible about myself after eating it, hahaha. This is definitely getting moved into my regular rotation of meals. Thanks!
So good even my eleven year old cleaned his plate!
*mic drop*
This looks delicious! Do you think it would last a few days? Maybe 3 at the most? I like to deal meal prep for lunch and this looks perfect!
Yes, this one held up very well in the refrigerator for me. :) The colors start to bleed together, but it was still delicious!
You da best! Just sayin. Love your food blog and I’m not going to be using many others for a while. Thanks so much, lady!
do you think you could take it for lunch also (and make it the day before)? or are there any ingredients that you shouldn’t mix in if you prep this ahead?
I just ate mine for lunch after making it yesterday and it was even better
Mine kept really well in the refrigerator. The colors ran together a bit, but it still tasted great for a few days!
Omg this was great! I put mine over a bed of spinach to fill me up a bit more.
I have seen some many unique uses for cauliflower over the past couple years, but nothing like this before! Thanks for the cool recipe and side dish idea for this week.
This is good…but the name is deceiving!! I totally expected peanut butter to be in the dressing…then again, I LOVE peanut butter so always want a strong peanut flavor. I love that this makes a good salad for outdoor picnics w summer coming soon!
Holy Moly…this is amazing! I had to literally style from inhaling the entire bowl. It’s so pretty, it looks like a party and tastes fantastic. I riced the cauliflower by hand and it was easy.
Just made this. Love it! I don’t have a TJs, but I found frozen riced cauliflower for $2.59.
If I wanted to add some protein to this, what would be best? Pork, tofu, how would you do it? Thanks.
I was thinking the easiest way would be to add some shredded rotisserie chicken. :) You could also pan fry some tofu cubes and add those.
This looks delicious!
Also, I’m completely jealous that wherever you live a lime can be procured for 19 cents. They are, at their cheapest, 1.50 here.
That’s probably the least expensive I’ve ever gotten one for! Usually I can get them 3/$1, though. :) That’s one of the benefits of living in the south near the tropical areas where they are grown, I guess. But things like apples and plums are always stupid expensive here. Hahah
I made this today and it turned out delicious! The flavours are very bright and strong, and it feels substantial because of the cauliflower – a great recipe for low-carb eaters. I riced my own cauliflower because I’ve never seen it pre-riced anywhere around here, but it was still pretty easy to put together. Thanks for the great recipe, Beth!
Now I want to try making taboulleh with riced cauliflower. A shout out to our sisters and brothers in arms at the realfood-project.com
This looks SO delicious; I cannot wait to make it! I love cauliflower any which way, and am always looking for new ways to get it into my diet. Do you think coconut aminos would work well in place of the soy sauce? Thanks, Beth!
Well, I’ve never tasted or cooked with coconut aminos, unfortunately, so I’m not sure how that would work as a substitution.
LOVE caulifower–but the closest TJ is more than 75 miles away, and supermarket cauliflower is rarely less than $4 a head. Aldi’s however, a bargain store owned by the same company as TJ, is located in lots of smaller towns across the country. I can usually pick up a head of cauliflower there for $2.49-2.99, sometimes less–no pre-riced there, though, nor is it available at any of my local supermarkets.
I love this recipe! It looks perfect for spring. Definitely pinning this for later =)
That looks so good, I might even consider ‘ricing’ some cauliflower!
This is a great way to use cauliflower rice! Normally I just season it with garlic and curry powder, but this is way more exciting! I’ll try to make it ASAP!
Thank you for keeping the recipe vegan, I really appreciate it!
Do you think it could last all workweek if the dressing was kept separate from the salad mixture until serving? Thanks!
It would probably last most of the work week. I don’t think this one will wilt too much even with the dressing. :)
This looks so yummy!